Leeds-based Flaunt Digital is a digital marketing agency specialising in SEO, digital PR, paid media, development and content marketing.
Sam Ward joined the agency back in 2017 as a web designer and developer and after a series of promotions, was appointed as head of development in 2022.
Here, he shares his career journey, tips and advice.
How did you first get into your industry?
My family is very techy. My dad is very much a tinkerer and is always curious how things work, this oftentimes led to some great conversations and my step dad was already in the industry, so would often talk through coding problems growing up. So I guess you could say it was a natural path after education.
What do you love about your job?
I really love working with my team members to tackle a problem. When a client comes to us with a brief, there are often a million and one methods to tackle it and everyone will have a different approach. Having a quick 5 mins just talking it through often is a really fun opportunity for everyone to learn something new and make sure that we have found the right solution.
Who – or what – has inspired you in your career?
It has to be my step dad, Aubrey Ward. When I was younger he would freelance at home on the sofa working on a student tracking app for a school in Birmingham. Coding is very much a career where sometimes the best solution is to talk things out and when he couldn’t quite work something out we would talk it through and eventually get there. I didn’t understand half of it at the time, but I was always super interested and this grew over time to where I am now.
What are the biggest challenges about your job?
Learning not to scope creep. When working on exciting things it is so easy to see all the things that are possible and want to do them all at once, but this often leads to projects getting delayed. So finding the line between a value add and a potential delay is a tough one to walk but can lead to a good finalised project.
What skills have been the most crucial to you succeeding in your career so far?
Being able to prioritise. By this, I mean knowing what is needed for a project to succeed as opposed to a task that is nice to have.
Learning how to learn in a team, everyone has a different range of skills & knowledge, allowing someone to show you how they tackle a problem often leads to all members upskilling.
Valuing feedback: This is the only way to keep learning and ensure the project meets expectations.
What was your first salary and what could someone getting into the industry expect to earn nowadays?
My first salary as an apprentice web developer was £5,382 per year, someone in the same position now would at minimum get £12,500 for this role.
What education or training would be most useful for someone looking to follow your career path?
I don’t think there is a fixed path to get into web development, we have members on our team from a range of different experiences. My advice would be to find a good mentor, someone who can teach you new tech as well as all the soft skills you need.
For individual learning, online learning websites have a wealth of information about coding which can be a great building block to expand your portfolio and knowledge for entering the industry.
What advice would you have for someone looking to follow your path?
Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”, if this is the case find someone or a resource that can fill this gap. This is okay in development, the industry is so big that no-one is expected to know everything. As long as you have the skills to find the answer through conversation or research, saying I don’t know is the only way to start on the journey of finding the right answer.
